Any input on the operations, corporate culture, compensation on Pioneer Investments in Boston? I have an interview with them for an analyst position? Any feedback would be helpful. Thanks.
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I’m surprised there have no comments. I thought Pioneer Investments was a well know fund company. I even tried “the vault” webpage, not much info there?
I work as a fund analyst and we have a pretty good relationship with Pioneer. As far as their structure goes, they basically have 4 job categories in investment management - jr. research analysts & sr. research analysts and jr. portfolio managers & sr. portfolio managers. The juniors earn the same compensation and the seniors earn the same. The goal is that they want research analysts who want to be career analysts and not portfolio managers. They do have several good funds and can utilize resources from the parent company Unicredito Italian bank. I have heard rumors from Pioneer employees that they are looking to make a large acquisition in the near future. Compensation is probably similar to the other fund families in Boston, but I don’t know for sure.
FutureMBACFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- The goal is that they want > research analysts who want to be career analysts > and not portfolio managers. I’ve heard the same thing at my firm. I think this is one of the stupider, and all too common, phrases one hears at asset management companies. It makes you wonder whether portfolio managers grow on trees.
Their t.v. adds are a lot like ours, which are in-turn a lot like everyone elses. I start to question who is actively managing and who is closet indexing. Willy
It seems most managed funds are all have similar operations, structure, and marketing. For those who work as buyside analysts, do you thing the market is saturated. Is there is real future demand for buyside research? Or will index funds and ETFs eventually dominate over managed funds?
Willy, am I the only one that believes in tactical asset allocation? I believe 100% in indexing and that you can beat market returns if your analysts can allocate assets properly. I think this is management. Example, a week before the Fed cut rates, I bought gold. Fed cut rates by more than even I expected and my gold shot up 6.35% in 1 week. I never analyzed 1 security.
I finished the interview and it was for a platform analyst? Is there such a position in fund companies?
You bought gold without any analysis, it went up and you think it is evidence of anything other than blind luck?
Zforce12000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I finished the interview and it was for a platform > analyst? Is there such a position in fund > companies? Sure there is… Will you be doing performance attributions on fixed income portfolios? Or something else?
No, I bought gold without analyzing individual stocks, individuals bonds, or individual companies. When you allocate between asset classes, analyzing individual securities is not important.
You realize that what you bought IS a security, correct? And yes, individual security analysis IS important across asset class. What made you choose gold over any other precious metal? I concede that asset class is important, but so too is the individual within an asset class.
just curious, what are typical jr and sr analyst compensation at a mutual fund like pioneer? is it more comparable to sell-side research than HF comp?
The position of the analyst would be responsible for a thorough analysis comparing the funds asset classes and determining improvements, based on underperformance of the fund compared to it’s peer group. Also the analyst would need to communicate to broker dealers why the fund should be used in their platforms. Seemed like institutional sales to me? FIAnalyst-If you any investment it does have some underlying analysis, it may not be techinical, it could be psychological–ie. “fight or flee” reaction buy based on market volitility. As for Gold, good buy in the short term, But I’m not long, as our USD is posed to appreciate…but that’s another subject post.
Zforce12000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- Also the analyst would need to communicate > to broker dealers why the fund should be used in > their platforms. Seemed like institutional sales > to me? Internal wholesaling, no? Institutional and 3rd party sales are usually separate. Institutional usually deals with separate accounts, not mutual funds.
FIA, well, considering the fact that I didn’t analyze the company that holds gold bullion nor did I need to conduct fundamental analysis on my cash, I’d say that I didn’t “analyze” any individual securities. Not sure why that’s so hard to wrap the brain around. Let me repeat this more clearly: analyzing individual, firm-specific securities is not necessary to beat the market. In fact, I think our very own CFA Institute argues quite strongly that the vast majority of people–educated financial people–can’t pick stocks to save their souls and that 90% of the investment decision is the asset allocation.
Find where I disagreed. My whole point was, you still picked gold over other precious metals. That either took analysis or a dartboard…
80 percent of your portfolio risk is coming from asset allocation. But never forget that 80% of the performance is based on stock selection. One financial institution just isn’t the other. If your fine model tells you it’s equity you need, there are 1000 wrong choices you can make. It goes both ways. Asset allocation is key. Picking the right stuff to buy is just as important. One of the two doesn’t cut it.
mcpass Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It goes both ways. Asset allocation is key. > Picking the right stuff to buy is just as > important. One of the two doesn’t cut it. Egg zact lee. And I’m sure this is where he will throw out an S&P 500 index fund. Well, why the S&P over QQQQ or a FTSE Index?